Surviving Minnesota!

[KlopKlop]

Ditto. I know that facia!   Looking for pictures of the finished project and the new chicken coop when done.

Pictures will come. I usually end up working until it's to dark to work and forget to snap photos along the way.

The 'new coop' is actually just my old workshop which was moved to my old garage (or at least the move is in progress) I will be adding roosts and nests and new lighting to get it ready. Hopefully will be done with the garage this week and ready to start on it. Need to cover some of the end walls took as it is currently exposed insulation. Ooooo and need to improve ventilation. I got a cage fan to put in the roof line to move out humidity.

 

[KlopKlop]

Thanks MO3...

If there is no news I accept gossip too....



Foggy here.  hard to motivate myself when I can only see a short distance.  I need to run to town, I need Propane. The big decision of the  day will be Orrock or Zimmerman.....

It could take me hours to decide.



I have sauerkraut that needs canning.  I wish I had time to do it.  The longer I wait the more it ferments.

Now that is a conundrum!

 

[lvie]

Okay - here it comes finally . . . . Good Morning Chickeners . . . . . . (crow this remember)

I am caught up on reading.

Today was to be a grandma-duty day with my four-year old grandson however the class that my d-i-l was suppose to attend was canceled.

Its an hour down and an hour back and it is not as if there is nothing to do at home. LOL. So I think of it as a gift of time.

Computer is acting weird. Everything takes at least three dbl clks to open or move to. Frustrating.

Now the weekend news.

Thursday the DH left for the annual 'boys' grouse hunting weekend in Aitkin. I rarely go to Aitkin (when we are done building on our parcel I will go again) but this weekend there were SIX labs, one was Abbey - who is doing FANTASTIC after her training! and I have two ankle bitters that I am pretty sure would not be returning home after a weekend of six labs. So I stay far away.

More to come.

 

[KlopKlop]

@Minniechickmama you should get a kick out of this...

One of the birds we hatched under a broody this spring was a cross of buckeye over RIR and is just the most gorgeous mahogany color with the dark tail tips and a nice tight comb. I was certain it was a pullet, it doesn't really have hackles yet (the pointy neck feathers) and the tail is still short but it was still pretty decent sized but mellow. We were excited for the addition the the flock but last night while working on the tractors I saw the should be pullet doing 'rooster stuff'... Darn! Then DW came out to check on me and saw it and she let out the biggest groan. "Every one that I really like is turning into a sex crazed boy!" I got a good chuckle.

Big Buck is getting up there, maybe is 5 years old now so as long as that boy stays mellow I may keep him. If he is as good of a rooster as his pops be can stay forever. Buck is awesome.

 

[lvie]

I took my Lincoln (hopefully you will find this humorous) down to IKEA and bought some pieces to organize and update my shabby chic basement area, which remember, has a seven-foot ceiling and so it is my true area because no one else wants to be down there. There are big windows on the East side so there is some natural light so it seems okay and not a dark dungeon. Plus lottsa lights. Lots.

But I did it in garage sale pieces and everything is mis-matched and who cares? However, I am tired of the way of it. I want it to be crisp and clean and organized.

So this young IKEA man sees me trying to figure out how in the world I am going to load this stuff into my Lincoln. (which my husband says is not a car to load stuff into - its a car to drive - which I say "then I need a Town and Country like I had before') I brought a box cutter along because I knew I would need to split the boxes open and load the contents by piece. Well he came over and whip - whip - whip - he had it all in there in the boxes and wow! it is amazing what one person can see that another cannot envision. Do you think the $5 tip was enough? I thought it was generous for the 10 minutes of work he accomplished. As I drove away I questioned myself.

I drove the hour home and then I did split the boxes open and made many, many trips back and forth to the car to bring in the contents.

Then I began organizing stuff and put together the pieces of furniture - first the 57 x 57 shelving unit. Heavy! But I did manage to get it into its place and put the boxes together that I had bought for it and put them into the cubbies.

I went to bed at 12:30 that night thinking I would sleep in a little the next morning. Nope! Wide awake and ready to attack that basement some more! I had also put together these cute saw horses that have a way to adjust the height and a five-foot table top on it. So begins the organization. Whew! Still not done throwing and filing and putting away. So frustrating! But I consistently worked to achieve the goal of organization!

The piles are down but not eliminated quite yet. Hopefully with my gift of time today I can finish the project and it will sparkle and shine and I will be ready for winter.

More to come. Blah blah blah.

 

[lvie]

Saturday continues the clean up. Then grandma duty in the afternoon. Then dinner for me and a couple of drinks out by the fire next door with the neighbors and off to bed.

CHICKEN TALK
So Sunday I ripped apart some shelving units I had removed from the basement and made a brooder so I could move the chicks (4 1/2 weeks now) from the garage to the coop. I sectioned off the front of the coop, made the brooder, set up the heat lamp secured, was letting all the flock free-range all day, and brought the six Golden Comets into their new area. The flock came in and stopped and clucked 'What in the world. . . . ?' and was checking those little ones out through the chicken wire and the little ones were staring and pecking right back!

I so wish I would have had my phone on me to take a picture of Reggie though. That was a once-in-a-lifetime shot. He walked over to the wire divider and cocked his head (because his comb is HUGE) and had his face right up on that wire looking at what will be his new hens. He stood there quite a while looking at them and they pecked at his big red wattles. I know, I know this next sentence will sound so silly but . . . . a person could almost read his mind. Its as if, while checking them out, at first he was not happy to see them. He looked at each chick, judged it, them said to himself that he was not happy but knew it was not going to matter what he thought so he may as well accept them and he turned and walked away and hasn't been back to look since (that I know of)

As I watched the chicks the one that thinks she is human found every escape route from that enclosed area so I could patch them up. She and another chick found the two low roosts in that small area and were jumping all around.

I haven't taken the time to watch chicken t.v. for a long time.

 

[lvie]

Almost done.

Klop Klop - ouch! sorry about that throbbing thumb. It happens

Minnie - yikes! I am into falling if I am not extra precautious -who would think that stupid muck and a threshold would cause so much trouble. And I realize I do not recover as quickly as if I was still young and agile. It hurts. So I move slower trying to analyze the area before I take a plunge. I still process up and down the myrid of stairs I negotiate each and every day - but I place my foot securely instead of assuming I can dance up and down them any longer. I love that I am old enough to have to grow through this period of adjustment.

LAST Story

So I am at the campfire next door on Saturday night and am telling them about the two chicks that come running to me and want to crawl all over me instead of eat or drink like the rest of the flock is doing.

The neighbor proceeds to tell me of an older gentleman that he knew growing up. You would see him drive through town and on the back of his seat is a chicken perched. One day the story came out from this older man that he had this chicken (a well-established truth) and he really did not want to take it in the car with him however he had no choice. From the beginning this chick was different than any other chick he had ever had. It would not leave him be! When he would leave that chick would run after the car and when he would come back he would find the chick two miles down the road still looking for the car. So he began letting it ride along. When he went to bed that chick would make such a fuss and noise that it finally got to sleep on the bedpost at the foot of the bed. Whenever he sat down the chick would fuss so finally it began to come into the house and sit on his shoulder.

My neighbor swears this story is true and that he knew the man as an acquaintance while growing up.

The END. I gotta go get something else done with my day.

 

[lvie]

Okay Ralphie - did you read every word of that?

 

[KlopKlop]

Almost done.

Klop Klop - ouch! sorry about that throbbing thumb. It happens

Minnie - yikes! I am into falling if I am not extra precautious -who would think that stupid muck and a threshold would cause so much trouble. And I realize I do not recover as quickly as if I was still young and agile. It hurts. So I move slower trying to analyze the area before I take a plunge. I still process up and down the myrid of stairs I negotiate each and every day - but I place my foot securely instead of assuming I can dance up and down them any longer. I love that I am old enough to have to grow through this period of adjustment. 

LAST Story

So I am at the campfire next door on Saturday night and am telling them about the two chicks that come running to me and want to crawl all over me instead of eat or drink like the rest of the flock is doing.

The neighbor proceeds to tell me of an older gentleman that he knew growing up. You would see him drive through town and on the back of his seat is a chicken perched.  One day the story came out from this older man that he had this chicken (a well-established truth) and he really did not want to take it in the car with him however he had no choice. From the beginning this chick was different than any other chick he had ever had. It would not leave him be!  When he would leave that chick would run after the car and when he would come back he would find the chick two miles down the road still looking for the car. So he began letting it ride along. When he went to bed that chick would make such a fuss and noise that it finally got to sleep on the bedpost at the foot of the bed. Whenever he sat down the chick would fuss so finally it began to come into the house and sit on his shoulder.

My neighbor swears this story is true and that he knew the man as an acquaintance while growing up.  

The END. I gotta go get something else done with my day.

With the 10,000 or so nails I've used on this garage it was bound to happen. Glad it has only been once and not too bad. Won't be losing my nail over it. Sounds like you had quite the weekend too

 

[scandiafowl]

Two chicks hatched last night. I must be crazy to incubate this time of the year!